Welcome to VicRock, a site which began in early 2002 to help publicise 50's and
60's rock and roll, rockabilly music and dance in Australia. Here any band, event
or dance, in fact anything associated with this music genre can be promoted Australia
wide. Its free to join and post your Gigs, News, Events and Announcements on the
site, add your site to our links directory and create your own member profile
with photo albums and chat. To join you can register
here.

Chuck Berry RIP

Charles Edward Anderson Berry or going by his stage name, Chuck Berry, died yesterday at the age of 90. Born in St Louis, Missouri, he was one of the founding legends of 1950's Rock n Roll with hits like Maybellene, Roll Over Beethoven and Johnny B Good. More hits followed in the 1960's with Nadine and You Never Can Tell etc and he was a major influence on the British Invasion bands like the Beatles and the Rollin Stones. Even the Beach Boys covered his tunes. His music was much loved by all but so was his solo guitar playing and stage performance as befitting a Roll & Roll music legend.

Chuck Berry always wanted to be a musician from an early age. He was impressed by the music of Louis Jordan who was one of the founding fathers of American blacks Rhythm & Blues music. In fact, he was reported as saying he wanted to sing like Nat King Cole with Louis Jordan's lyrics, the swing of Benny Goodman and the soul of Muddy Waters. He was in trouble with the law at an early age and was jailed again later in the early 1960's. That however didn't stop him from being one of the most popular stage performers from 1970's onwards. In fact he even performed at Viva Las Vegas, the famed annual "1950's rockabilly" festival, about two years ago.

He was awarded a Grammy in 1984 for life time award and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. He recently announced plan to release a new album on his 90th birthday. That will be selling like hot cakes when released no less in memory of a true legend of 1950's rock n roll ....